Russian journalist deported from Belarus

New York, June 1, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the deportation of Rodion
Marinichev, a special correspondent for the Moscow-based online broadcaster
Dozhd (The Rain), from Belarus, and the ban on his reentry into the country.
CPJ calls upon Belarusian authorities to remove their sanctions against the journalist.

Police in Minsk
detained Marinichev on Monday, after he interviewed Irina
Khalip, a prominent Belarusian journalist who had been handed a suspended two
year prison term. Following his detention, Marinichev was deported from Belarus
that same day, local
and international
press reported.

According to the
independent news website Telegraf,
policemen stopped Marinichev for an ID check. They then asked him to reveal the
contents of his bag, and detained him afterwards for what they called "a check
on belonging to an extremist group." Marinichev was escorted to a local police station,
where they kept him for three hours citing his lack of journalistic accreditation.
Upon his release, police ordered Marinichev to leave Belarus within 24 hours, Telegraf
reported. According to the BBC
Russian service, Belarusian authorities also banned Marinichev from returning
to the country for five years. He is currently in Moscow.

"Belarus is not content with trying to muzzle domestic journalists
but wants to silence foreign reporters too," said CPJ Deputy Director Robert
Mahoney. "The expulsion of Rodion Marinichev is a disgrace. When did it become
a crime for one reporter to interview another?"

Marinichev told his
broadcaster that police detained him after seeing his Russian press badge
in the passport and finding phone numbers of local opposition activists whom he
had interviewed earlier in Minsk. After he was released on Monday, Marinichev
discovered that police deleted all the data from his digital camera and his
voice recorder, including the interview with Khalip, he said. In addition to
the deleted interviews, information he had gathered on Belarus' deepening
economic crisis was also erased.

Marinichev's
detention and deportation follows the Friday statement by President Aleksandr
Lukashenko, who publicly criticized foreign journalists for allegedly spreading
panic with their reports on the state of Belarusian economy. "Russian media have
been the most hysterical," Lukashenko told his government officials during a
televised meeting, according to local and international
press. "Make sure that these media outlets are no longer present on our
territory."